In recent years it has become fashionable to employ pile carpets or carpeting not only as floor coverings, but also as wall coverings, for example in place of wallpaper and the like. Whether used as floor or wall coverings, it has long been customary to create various designs in pile carpeting during its manufacture. For example, during the weaving of pile carpets so-called wavy wires, or pile cutting wires, may be inserted parallel to the weft during alternate shedding of the warp yarns in order to raise on the surface of the finished carpet high and low pile yarns in certain areas, and if desired, cut pile yarns in other areas. Similar such wavy pile surfaces can also be created in carpets produced by the conventional tufting process during carpet manufacture.
One of the disadvantages of prior such pile carpets is that the shaping of the pile surface is performed during the manufacture of the carpet, so that the purchaser is required to select whatever designs happen to be available. More recently, however, cutters or shearing devices have been developed which can be utilized after a carpet has been manufactured, to cut selected pile yarns in order to form any desired design in the pile surface of a carpet. Cutters of the type described utilize electrically or pneumatically operated clippers, or vibrating cutters similar to the type of cutters utilized for trimming men's hair, or the like.
A primary disadvantage of known such pile cutters is that cut pile yarns have tended to collect or accumulate on or near the shears or cutting edges of the device, thereby required frequent cleaning of the cutter in order to prevent undesirable jamming or improper operation of its shears.
Still another disadvantage of prior such cutters, or rug carvers as they are also known, is that their cutting blades are mounted so that the moving set of blades is reciprocated relative to the stationary set along a straight line, so that in order to cut piles of differing heights, it is necessary carefully to manipulate the cutter to tilt or otherwise adjust the linear path along which shearing occurs.
A further disadvantage of prior such cutters is that they have been designed to accomodate only one type of shearing mechanism or cutting head, so that if it is desired to change the type of cut which is made in the pile, a separate cutting device must be utilized.
It is object of this invention, therefore, to provide an improved pile carpet carver or trimmer which has a removable trimming head, and which is designed for use selectively with heads having differently shaped shears, thereby selectively to change the contour of the cutting plane along which the shears cut.
Another specific object of the invention is to provide an improved, pneumatically operated carpet trimming device which is designed to utilize exhaust air from the device for blowing severed pile yarns away from the shears.
It is a further object of this invention to provide for pneumatically operated cutting devices of the type described improved, differently shaped shearing heads, which can be removably mounted on the devices.
Still another object of the invention is to provide an improved carpet cutting or carving device of the type described which is substantially simpler and less expensive to manufacture than prior such cutters.
Other objects of the invention will be apparent hereinafter from the specification and from the recital of the appended claims, particularly when read in conjunction with accompanying drawings.